|
I think the worst thing a car salesman (allright, person, although I have only once dealt with a female seller of vehicles, and she pretty much gave up and I was handled by the male sales manager, although she did put a very nice xmas bow on the rear view mirror of my first car) can do is be patronizing and make assumptions about their customer.
I had already decided that I was going to buy an Eagle Talon in '94. I had driven my best friend's on his recommendation, fell in love with the look and the handling. Went to his dealer, got his salesperson, and what turned out to be a great price. Of course, being a good shopper, I had to do some comparison shopping, so went to another dealer which shall remain nameless, but is Sport Chrysler of Norristown.
Doofus (very young salesman) should have had a clue when I sat down and explained that I wanted a 1994 Eagle Talon DL with the 21M options package.
Online searches of car information were not big in those days, and my specificity regarding the model and options package was unusual, to say the least.
On the way out to the lot to look for a vehicle to test drive, the young man said, "you want an automatic, right?"
I carefully stated "I won't drive an automatic."
He cheerily responded, "It's really easy. I can show you how!"
I should have walked out right then and there. But I had something better in mind.
I suggested he might want to put on his seatbelt. I believe in fair warnings. He did, but only because the seat belt alarm sounding distracts one during a test drive.
He was one of those chatty little bastards too. Didn't get the training advice of let the test drive sell the car.
I revved it up a little bit to "get the feel of things" and sprayed gravel leaving the parking lot ... ran the car down to 202 and had it wound up to about 80 by the time I hit the jughandle/light for the turnaround just past the Bridgeport exit.
He did stop talking.
It's not often you get the chance to make a salesman wet himself.
And no, he didn't get the sale. When it came time to "run the numbers" he was still $10/month over the payment calculation I already had in hand from the other dealer.
And when he tried to "make me a better deal" on a used Talon that he had on the lot, he couldn't find the keys, but had figured out that I knew "just a little bit" about motor vehicles, and popped the hood on the used car.
I had a chance to feel around on the inside of the hood, and found evidence of some major bodywork ... then did a walkaround of the car and saw that there were still scrapes that hadn't been tended to on the driver's side rear quarterpanel.
Doofus returns with the keys (brave lad) and says, "you ready?"
"nope. How bad was the accident?"
"Accident, what accident?"
"The one this car was in."
"I have no knowledge of this car ever having been in an accident."
"Oh, really? So what's this ... and this ... and this ... and see here?"
"oh ... ummmm .... I can see what I can do about getting you a better deal on that other one ..."
|